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Prinzip

Artist Oskar Kokoschka (Austrian, 1886-1980)

Date1918

Dimensions(Sheet) H: 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm); W: 12 5/16 in. (31.3 cm)

MediumColor lithograph on beige wove Japan paper.

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Barbara Sunderman Hoerner

Object number

2005.214

Not on View

Label TextMuch of European Expressionism grew out of artists’ disenchantment with politics and culture during and after World War I (1914–18). In The Principle, Oskar Kokoschka explored his fear of Germany descending into civil war following the overthrow of the imperial government at the end of the War. In this stylistically messy image, blood pours out of the mouth of a sculpted bust of Marianne, the French representation of Liberty. Inscribed across the base as a warning, the slogan of the French Revolution and of the November Group, a revolutionary artistic collective, is altered from “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” to “Liberty, Equality, and Fratricide.” The November Group sought to make art a tool of social and political transformation, but Kokoschka deeply mistrusted their goals.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, New Works on Paper, Dec. 2005-Mar. 5, 2006.

Toledo Museum of Art, European Expressionist and Cubist Works on Paper: 1900-1930, Dec. 2, 2011-Mar. 11, 2012 (University of Toledo Student Exhibition).

Toledo Musem of Art, The Great War: Art on the Frontline, Jul. 25-Oct. 19, 2014.